Gloucester has joined a small group of communities that will reconsider the previously approved zoning under the MBTA Communities Act, which would have allowed more housing development.
Movement is dangerous state funding to the city and potentially invites legal action.
In early October, the Gloucester City Council approved the zoning plan to comply with the MBTA Communities Act 2021. However, in recent weeks, a group of residents has gathered enough signatures to demand that the city council would reconsider
At a special meeting this week, the council refused to rescind its earlier approval, voting 6-0 (with three aldermen absent) to send the decision to a future citywide vote.
City General Counsel Suzanne Egan said during Tuesday’s meeting that the State Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities told her it would consider Gloucester in noncompliance unless and until the new zoning
Several aldermen expressed disappointment and frustration at the turn of events, with some saying they had heard from residents who signed the petition without really understanding what it would mean for the city.
“The proposal that was prepared and developed through a year of public meetings and public input was as minimal as we could have hoped for,” Councilman Jason Grow said. “If we fail this proposal, we will send it back to the Planning Board to make a more arduous proposal, more difficult to achieve, perhaps more far-reaching in its scope. And I don’t think that was what we wanted to do.”
The MBTA Communities Act requires 177 cities and towns served by the MBTA to have at least one zoning district where multifamily housing is permitted by right. Housing construction is not guaranteed under the law.
Non-compliant communities are are not eligible for a list of state-funded grants.
the state announced last month that more than 100 cities and towns had approved new zoning to meet the requirements.
Gloucester qualifies as a commuter rail community because it has two stations on the Newburyport line. So he has until Dec. 31 to approve a zoning that meets the law’s requirements.
If the city does not approve rezoning, it risks thousands or even millions of dollars in state funding that has been awarded for infrastructure repairs on Gloucester Avenue, improvements to its sewage treatment plant ‘wastewater and renovations at the Sawyer Free Library.
Other grassroots communities challenge MBTA zoning change
The city is not the first to face its current situation. In February, after Milton residents successfully petitioned to reverse Town Meeting’s approval of its MBTA community zoning, voters rejected the proposal with 54 percent of the vote. Because Milton is classified as a rapid transit community, the vote meant it had missed the Dec. 31, 2023 compliance deadline.
Within days, the state rescinded a grant for city levee repairs, and Attorney General Andrea Campbell filed a lawsuit to force Milton’s hand. The demand was heard by the Supreme Court in October, but a decision has not yet been announced.
More recently, a group of Needham residents successfully called for a referendum to reconsider town meeting approval of zoning for MBTA communities. The vote is expected to be held in January 2025, past the city’s Dec. 31 compliance deadline.
Campbell has repeatedly said that she he doesn’t want to have to use legal action compel communities to comply with the law.
Gloucester proposed two MBTA-friendly areas
The zoning proposal approved in Gloucester would have created two areas near each commuter rail station where property owners could build three-family buildings without a special permit. Other than an increase in the number of units allowed, the new districts were largely the same as the city’s preexisting zoning.
Councilman Val Gilman criticized the request to hold off on the new zoning until residents can vote on it as a misrepresentation of the proposal. He said he had seen a September email from the opposition which claimed the changes would increase Gloucester’s population by more than a third.
“This is leaving us in a situation here where this is going to cost our city and our taxpayers tons of money because of the misrepresentation,” he said.
Former city councilor Tracy O’Neil, who spearheaded the petition, told the Gloucester Times I disagreed with that assessment and with the idea that people didn’t understand what they were signing.
“There was no misrepresentation,” O’Neil told the Times. “That’s false. . . . We never misrepresented ourselves. You signed a petition that said ‘I want a chance to vote.’ [MBTA Communities]”, that’s all it was.”
A vote will be held sometime in 2025, either during the November election or in a special election that could be scheduled earlier.